Arsenal v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[malcolmw]

Yeah, they won't get another 5-0 all year. The overhype on here is a bit embarrassing. The least we should expect from professional footballers is to do the basics.

Oh they may well get more 5 or even 6 nil wins.

Its one game ffs. If we have a few more like this then by all means start crying in your soup.

We have as many points as the other 2 promoted teams and 3 more than Manure

Perspective!!

[Irish Ian]

We can’t compete at that level, absolutely nowhere near that level.

Losing at The Emirates won’t see us going down, way more important games to come against teams at our level.

Dust ourselves down, and get ready for Newcastle

Agreed, our points will be gleaned from the bottom 10 with hopefully the odd flukey away day against some of the mega rich boys.

I just hope the condfidence doesnt take too much of a hit

[weasel]

The fickle nature of football. Struyjk meets a header cleanly and bullets a header that is saved. The Arsenal player turns his body the wrong way trying to get a flick on, it hits his shoulder and goes in. Who knows what might have happened if Struyjk's header went in.

A few players will have learnt lessons today. We were poor in possession and too panicked. With the cup game coming up next I think it is a great chance for some other players to get a run out and up to them to say, 'hey boss start me in the next league game.'

The disappointing thing today was that in the first half despite the poor quality when we had the ball we kept Arsenal at arm's length yet conceded the soft goal from the corner and then the second from the only time Arsenal cut us open. Second half was poor and we looked woeful defending corners.

Huge doubts over Perri in net. Not just the poor kicking but conceding 5 from 5 efforts isn't good at all.

[Barlow Boy]

It won't but that's not the takeaway here. It's how far we're behind.

Of course we are miles behind, a million miles behind.

The league is split into two (if not three) mini divisions. We aren’t in the likes of Arsenal’s division, I doubt the likes of Burnley, Sunderland, Wolves, Brentford will fare much better than we have today.

I’d be worried if we were getting dicked 5-0
at our nearest rivals, but we were playing a team pretty much guaranteed top three in the Premier League.

[White Lotus]

We've never been good at set pieces under Farke and passing out from the back was ridiculous

It's fine to say that without saying we should be beating Arsenal.

We should be competitive and do our bit well, we didn't

There's a lot to learn from that defeat, i'm not totally deflated at all.
The 2 main negatives i take from that game and to try and look at it constructively : I struggle to see what we get from Gruev, but it isn't fair to single out a certain 1 player in a game like that, as we were out classed.
And i think our lines were way too far apart, but even that is hard to call when Arsenal were cruising at the end.
To say our subs didn't get into it - Arsenal simply didn't let us have the ball when they were so far in front and could cruise.
I would sit them all down and go through the whole game again with them - freeze framing all the time to look where we should have been positioned.
Arsenal will do this to a lot more teams this season at home.
We have a lot of players like James that just don't know how to handle a game like this, some might scoff at Aaronson, but he has a higher level of football in him than James.
I don't feel Piroe has, let's say - An international level of game in him.
I'm not sure about quite a few, Willy etc.
But i'm hoping i've seen enough in some to get us through and be on the same level to compete with the lower third of Premier league football, and i hope Farke can take something from these defeats to learn how best to set up against the top teams, because we just haven't got the quality of player to compete at Arsenals level atm.
Someone has mentioned Newcastle will be interesting next week, I think it certainly will, Struijk, Rodon weren't at all on their game today, were they found out? The keeper struggled and is a worry with his feet.
But i honestly feel we can do something about it going forward, and far from throwing in the white towel.

MOT.

[malcolmw]

James I hope

Ramazani for Willy

Harrison and Aaronson can stay home whispering to eachother.

I would start Harrison instead of Rama.. (a) because he's played at this level and (b) he is working hard to get reintegrated and if he can he can be an asset.

Noah on the one wing and Jack on the other for me. But then again - relatively speaking - Willie did not disgrace himself today (well less than the others anyway )

Aaronson should always play from the bench.

[SG90]

Ok lets hear how you would have went about it.

I've explained multiple times already:

Research Arsenal's set pieces since everyone knows they're strong at them
Don't try to play out from the back in the PL, it's suicidal
Don't play Piroe as a target man ffs, it never worked in the Championship, so why would it in the PL
Play your best players, not your favourites
Be more defensive away from home and play on the counter attack

[DDB220]

My takeaways now that my son is tied up and gagged. Mrs looking on wishing it was me.

Perri is not great with the ball at his feet, I can see why he has perfected throwing it. Flippancy aside it does not help with trying to play out at a pedestrian pace, particularly when the movement ahead is non existent. This is my issue with Gruev, he isn’t mobile enough, far too static. Tidy at what he does for the most part but we need more than back to you passing. He rarely takes it on the turn or on the run.

Piroe is not a target man, every time we played it long we didn’t get a sniff, so trying to play it out from the back was in some ways an attempt to get the ball forward , but their press is very good and it takes bravery on the ball and movement to play through it.

The ball constantly coming back takes it toll, we get squeezed time on the ball is even more limited so transition play becomes more difficult.

There will be changes for the next game. Incidentally, I agree with SG90 on one point - Bogle was the only positive in possession.

[White Lotus]

Exactly, I'll worry when Burnley, Sunderland, Wolves etc are stuffing us

Bang on - Now i'd be suicidal if EFC did this to us last week, and in total despair, resigned to relegation in fact.

They didn't

[Irish Ian]

'Gone ' about it

Sieg Heil

[YorkshireSquare]

We wanted the Premier League, we wanted to play the best teams, we wanted to see the best players on the planet.

Sit back, and enjoy

Did you enjoy it?

[malcolmw]

There's a lot to learn from that defeat, i'm not totally deflated at all.
The 2 main negatives i take from that game and to try and look at it constructively : I struggle to see what we get from Gruev, but it isn't fair to single out a certain 1 player in a game like that, as we were out classed.
And i think our lines were way too far apart, but even that is hard to call when Arsenal were cruising at the end.
To say our subs didn't get into it - Arsenal simply didn't let us have the ball when they were so far in front and could cruise.
I would sit them all down and go through the whole game again with them - freeze framing all the time to look where we should have been positioned.
Arsenal will do this to a lot more teams this season at home.
We have a lot of players like James that just don't know how to handle a game like this, some might scoff at Aaronson, but he has a higher level of football in him than James.
I don't feel Piroe has, let's say - An international level of game in him.
I'm not sure about quite a few, Willy etc.
But i'm hoping i've seen enough in some to get us through and be on the same level to compete with the lower third of Premier league football, and i hope Farke can take something from these defeats to learn how best to set up against the top teams, because we just haven't got the quality of player to compete at Arsenals level atm.
Someone has mentioned Newcastle will be interesting next week, I think it certainly will, Struijk, Rodon weren't at all on their game today, were they found out? The keeper struggled and is a worry with his feet.
But i honestly feel we can do something about it going forward, and far from throwing in the white towel.

MOT.

Good points White.
Anyone who is "throwing in the towel" at this point should perhaps start watching chess - it will be way less stressful for them.

Frankly Im glad the inevitable drubbing happened so early.
And let's all be honest - we have all known there would be weeks like this.

[The Subhuman]

Of course we are miles behind, a million miles behind.

The league is split into two (if not three) mini divisions. We aren’t in the likes of Arsenal’s division, I doubt the likes of Burnley, Sunderland, Wolves, Brentford will fare much better than we have today.

I’d be worried if we were getting dicked 5-0
at our nearest rivals, but we were playing a team pretty much guaranteed top three in the Premier League.

But the rest of the division isn't. Some of the lower table teams will give Arsenal/Liverpool etc games this season. Most of them in fact. We're not in Brentford's class yet, that's not to say we can't beat them or any team, Any Given Saturday to paraphrase the NFL, but we'll be outsiders in every game bar Burnley and Sunderland

[White Lotus]

I knew we would....

Concede from a corner
Give a penalty away.
Receive yellow cards.

And when the 15yo came on, he would rings around us.

We are so predictable.

Please state what you feel will happen next week then pre match v Newcastle, and i'll look to put a bet on each

Before please, not after.

[SG90]

Oh they may well get more 5 or even 6 nil wins.

Its one game ffs. If we have a few more like this then by all means start crying in your soup.

We have as many points as the other 2 promoted teams and 3 more than Manure

Perspective!!

We won't win on Saturday playing like that. We need to do the basics first and compete. If that means dropping a few favourites from last season, then so be it. We need to drop the sentiment.

[The Subhuman]

Sieg Heil

Regional dialect isn't it Ian? ..nothing wrong with that.

[malcolmw]

Did you enjoy it?

I actually did.

Not the result.
Not the way we played.
Not the fact that there are teams this good in the PL.

I enjoyed it because we are in the PL and getting to play opposition like this.

I also enjoyed it because our fans sang the team to the final whistle.

I would have enjoyed beating Plymouth or Hull 4-0 far less, right now.

[whiteinfrance]

Sieg Heil

Don't you be shouting Gaelic at me !!

[Carrick Dave]

Arsenal are £20 million per player ahead of Leeds ffs, including their subs - people who expect us to compete at the Emirates at this stage are living in CCL.

We won't achieve our aim this season - survival - against the Arsenals and Liverpools.

Compete and win in the games we can win, if we don't, criticise. But thinking tactics, selection or subs would have made any difference today is bollocks.

[YorkshireSquare]

I actually did.

Not the result.
Not the way we played.
Not the fact that there are teams this good in the PL.

I enjoyed it because we are in the PL and getting to play opposition like this.

I also enjoyed it because our fans sang the team to the final whistle.

I would have enjoyed beating Plymouth or Hull 4-0 far less, right now.

Sorry, can't see it like that.

I might have enjoyed it had we given a decent account of ourself, but we didn't. Not at all.